The Rise of the Guild

Amara moved around the house slowly gathering her things into a pack; potions, food, money, and her mother's jeweled knife. She then began to gather her weapons; her mother's bow the Cupid, and her father's scimitar the Black Panther. "Leaving so soon?" the old man called.

"Guild Master, you shouldn't be up and about. Lie back down please."

"I am not dead yet, nor am I a fool…you seek answers…and other Heroes."

"I appreciate all that you've done for me Guild Master, but if I am to become a true Hero I must be trained."

The old man smiled gently, "Child you are so young and not yet as wise as I. But I know you will not listen so I will give you some good advice, take the caravan to Bowerstone with the crops we harvested and sell them there. Then head to the Market District and seek out the house of Thomas Cluck."

"Cluck, you mean like a chicken?"

The old man chuckled, "You'll see why when you get there."

And so she left that town looking back as Oakvale faded in the distance and the caravan began to pass through Barrow Fields, then Darkwoods, then Greatwood finally arriving at Bowerstone where she sold the crops and went to Cluck Manor. She arrived at the mansion its white painted walls and the chicken statues and fountains in the front yard. The golden gates gleamed in the sunlight and she moved up to the door and used the chicken knocker. "Yes, yes I'm coming."

The man who answered the door was dressed like nobility wearing a cuffed overcoat and a frilled shirt. His trousers black with a golden stripe running down the seam and he wore fancy leather boots. His eyes were electric blue and he had short white hair with a single tattoo of a purple thistle that wrapped around his left eye. "Ah I'm sorry, I don't have any gold on me at the moment give me a second."

"Actually I'm looking for a Hero, his name is…" He grabbed her and pulled her inside, closing and locking the door lightning charged at his fingertips.

"Who sent you? Are you one of those damned Oakvale Anti-Hero blokes?"

"N-no sir, I came from Guild Master. He wanted me to find you."

The harshness in his eyes subsided and the lightning disappeared. "You're lucky he sent you…if you were from the Oakvale Anti-Hero League I would have killed you where you stand."

She was a little shocked but she held herself together as she looked him in the eyes, "I need someone to teach me the ways of a Hero!"

"You've come to the wrong person then…I have nothing to teach nor do I wish to."

She firmly planted herself in the chair by his door, "Then I'm not leaving."

The next week passed by slowly as she sat there and waited, it had been two days since her food had run out and she was starving. He walked up slowly, "Do you truly wish to learn the ways of a Hero? The more you know the harder it will be to deny it when they come for you."

She gazed weakly at him, "More than anything I want to be a Hero!"

"First lesson, get something to eat…I refuse to teach a corpse."

She went to his kitchen and saw the meal he had prepared, vegetables, lean meats, pasta, and wine. She gulped it all down not breaking stride until he entered the room. "Are you done? If so I have a training ground in the basement. The training will be grueling and I don't intend to take breaks is that understood?"

She nodded in agreement and followed him down to the basement where he set his jacket on the stand and grabbed two training swords throwing her one. "First lesson will be in the discipline of Strength. You don't strike me as a brute so I will teach you the basics of swordplay so you can learn to defend yourself and fight back if need be. Now prepare yourself!" He charged her and swung she instinctively blocked it and tried to stop the onslaught of blows thrown her way but by the end of the first hour she was drenched in sweat and covered with cuts. "We'll try again soon. Since I have gauged where you stand in swordplay I can train you enough in three weeks, then we move on to Will and Skill."

The next three weeks were brutal physical exercises and combat routines to train her to be agile and strong. Until they came to the final test, "Today, I ask that you get one scratch on me. I will use my sword Excalibur and I will test you. Pass and I train you in Will, fail and we continue training for another few weeks." He drew the golden blade from its sheath the blade glittering with a reflective sheen as he spun the sword and tested its weight. "I have not fought with this sword in five years, when I accumulated enough gold to buy this mansion and live easy for a few years I gave up being a Hero. So now I will show you how a real Hero fights." He rushed in with a side swipe, but she anticipated it and blocked. However, the gold began to leave his sword and hers began to turn into gold. She broke away and stared in awe. "Oh I forgot to mention, Excalibur can turn anything I attack to gold by drawing on my Will. It's how I paid for this mansion and my charities. I can also do this!" The blade turned a hot orange as he sliced cleanly through her blade leaving a melting glob at the end of it. She dropped the blade and ran for her father's sword in the corner drawing the obsidian scimitar and dropped into a fighting stance holding the blade behind her back and began to stalk Thomas like a cat before lunging in slashing, feigning, and reversing. Driving him back until he was against the wall where she simply cut his sleeve.

Thomas smiled gently, "You passed." Both of them collapsed panting, Thomas stood slowly and his shirt fell off revealing two more tattoos a golden guild seal with wings on his back, and a green set of scales with a crown over them. "What do your tattoos mean?"

He sighed softly, "When the guild fell, me and three others retreated to Aurora which was the homeland of one of the Heroes, Jon the Stonewall. Along with Richard Shard and Warren Mest we all lived and trained there for ten years. In Aurora tattoos are marks of power or symbolic significance. Green is the color of growth, so the scales and crown is for a growth of wealth and status. The golden Guild Seal is for the prosperity of Heroes that the Guild and Heroes will one day live again. The purple thistle is for my mind, purple represents dreams and since a thistle is resilient so is my mind. It is a ward of sorts to keep me safe, now to begin your training." Suddenly greenish blue lines began to arc around his body forming symbols and patterns. "These are the Will lines of a Master. We shall begin instruction of it alongside Skill, because if you want to gather Heroes we must act quickly."

They began their next lesson and he taught her of the essences of Will and Skill. "Will is to harness your mana or life energy and turning it into power. What sets Heroes apart from others is that even in our strength or speed we draw on Will to supply those super-human feats. Without Will the other two are nothing." She focused hard drawing all of her energy into her palms only to create a measly spark.

"It's not working!"

"We're only three days in, and it's not supposed to be. If anyone could harness Will there would be no Heroes and we would be fighting constantly with one another. The very reason the Old Kingdom collapsed is because the children of Archon saw fit to oppress the people. Just as they were overthrown so were we."

She was not pleased with the answer, but she continued to train growing more powerful each day. Thomas said she had a natural affinity for Skill as she beat his agility obstacle course in record time and they continued to practice swordplay and archery. And as a year passed she was strong enough to use a variety of spells though none of them were very strong. "It looks like you've still got a way to go with Will and we haven't even started the more advanced aspects of Skill. I think we need help, but luckily you wanted to find more Heroes and I know three who would be willing to teach you. They were my three companions that went with me to Aurora. We'll start with your Skill teacher, Warren Mest."

They set out to find him, with a proper change of clothes of course, Thomas wore a simple white shirt and a coat, with regular explorer's trousers and some simple sturdy boots. He had provided her with a sleeveless shirt and a set of leather trousers and boots. The location was nothing like she imagined however, when they left Bowerstone North and went down to the Prison Path she was a little shocked. They took a small ferry out to Bargate Prison which had been reinstated by the newest mayor of Bowerstone to hold criminals, since Twin Blade's defeat many years ago the bandit community had been scattered and formed little clans and had been brought to the prison bit by bit. They were greeted at the front gate by the Warden, "Ah, Master Cluck I received the report that you and your bodyguard would be arriving! As you can see the prison is completely changed from the darker ages."

"Indeed, I'm here to locate a certain prisoner and put him to work for me."

"Beg your pardon ma lord?"

"I am looking for Warren Mest otherwise known as Warren the Balver Knight."

"Ah him, um, terribly sorry but we can't let a villainous Hero like him out of these prison walls. After calming down that Hero hunt by the Oakvale Anti-Hero league we don't want to rekindle any hatred for Heroes."

"I see, don't worry Warden I will speak with him and if he is unreachable we will leave and he can stay and rot."

The Warden pondered this before agreeing solemnly, "I'll take you down to him."

They ventured through the prison, first passing the convicted criminals who jeered and yelled at her, then on to the criminally insane, and finally they arrived at a long staircase that went down to the heart of the island. Here in a circular barred chamber in shackles and a stockade for good measure was a skinny man with long black hair and tattoos like Thomas. One was an orange crescent moon on his left arm and the other was a red scythe on his right arm. He raised his head slowly and she saw two blue lines running from his eyes to his scraggily beard, the eyes a piercing gold that scanned the room like a caged wolf. "Hello Warren," said Thomas as he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of him, "It's been a long time, six years if I remember correctly, how did you wind up in here?" Warren just stared coldly through him and continued to scan the room, his eyes fixed on her and she froze still. "She is my apprentice Warren, but she needs someone to teach her how to be skillful, and crafty…can you do that?" He continued to stare, she felt herself getting dizzy and the room began to move around her only the eyes remained. She instinctively called on her Will to shield her mind and a slow smile crept up Warren's face,

"She learned well…"

"I should hope so, her name is Amara Collins."

At this Warren's eyes snapped on Thomas and he gazed intently at him. "If you agree to train her I will get you out of here."

"Her parents weren't known for their Skill abilities, why should I?"

"Because she's fast, good with a bow, and she's very stealthy."

Warren grinned wider and looked into Thomas' eyes, "You've got a deal."

"Warden, release him."

The Warden stood there slack jawed as if he had been hit over the head with a stick before stumbling over trying desperately to get the right keys, "Three years he's been here, never once I heard him speak!"

Warren replied smugly, "You were never a conversationalist."

"Oh so now that you talk your some sort of smart arse!"

"Aw, but Warden we always got along so well you and I…what changed?" Warren taunted.

"That's it!" The Warden charged him as if to tackle him and before Amara or Thomas could jump in to stop him, Warren used his chains to flip over the Warden and spun kicking the Warden in his head knocking him into the bars.

"Thomas could you fetch me the keys please?"

Thomas retrieved them from the Warden and unlocked Warren's locks and Warren tested his weight. "Little malnourished, but on bread and scarce water I didn't expect to be a powerhouse." He walked up to the Warden and kicked him in the gut before locking him in the cell. "I'll need my personal effects." He opened a chest and pulled out some blue trousers with black boots and fingerless black gloves, throwing on a black highwayman's coat with red embroidery on the back of a crescent moon with a wolf howling at it. He pulled out an odd katana, a bow and a quiver, and tucked the keys in his pocket.

"Don't worry Warden, I'll hand these to someone who will let you out later. Now, you wanted me to teach her? What say we get some fresh air?"

They began to walk their way out of the prison, the prisoners waving and cheering at Warren as he strode out like the king; gesturing to his subjects and saying, "Thank you, thank you, you're too king!" They made it to the prison yard and where they were surrounded by guards.

"What do you think you're doing, where's the Warden?"

"He's busy, but here are the keys to the resort, I'm checking out." He threw them to the closest guard and it bounced off his chest as they refused to lower their weapons, "I see…so it's gonna be that way…" Amara barely registered what happened, but in the next instance Warren was sheathing his katana on the other side of the guards and they all fell down unconscious. "Time's wasting, let's go and save the world or whatever it is you all want to do."

"Is he always like this?" Amara asked.

"No, he used to be a lot more patient." Thomas replied.

They set of, not knowing that soon a great evil would fall upon them.

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